Taking Care of your Mind is Jiu-Jitsu: The importance of training instructors

February 25, 2015

With jiu-jitsu being spread around the world, the mats have gained ground and the gentle art, even more fans. Thousands of students, championships and new graduations are held constantly. How gratifying is to see all this happening! But have you ever asked yourself: is the path being correctly drawn?

The uncontrolled expansion of bjj (in general) raised many questions about the technical quality of instructors and teachers around the world. After all, the belt itself does not represent the quality of what is being transmitted. Often, the individual may know a lot about the technique, but when it comes to teaching, he/she is a total disaster. The details are not well shown, the gentleness of the gentle art is forgotten and then we see the improper use of strength.

Fact is that regardless of being a simple student or an athlete (they are all equal, but with different goals), having good results in championships or not, they are reflections of what is being taught. This does not refer only to subjective terms, but mainly to the technique. Regardless of aggressive or calm style or the way the movements are executed, you can always notice if strength is being used or not. Error or hit? Is the student the guilty one? In fact, what a teacher often lacks is the preparation and knowledge about jiu-jitsu for beginners.

At Gracie Barra, we have a preparatory course for instructors of our units, the ICP. Apart from our standard, we are not aware of other course with this same purpose in other teams. The difference is in the willingness to learn and, in particular, in the way we teach what was learned.